BETHESDA, MD— Alley Cat Allies, the only national advocacy organization dedicated to the protection and humane treatment of cats, today criticized the American Bird Conservancy for issuing a wildly inaccurate press release that grossly mischaracterized the health of feral cats and the practice of Trap-Neuter-Return.

“The American Bird Conservancy persists in spreading fiction about feral cats, and its efforts to promote terrible inaccuracies about feral cats and rabies is only the latest example. Such a stunt could lead to panic and the needless deaths of cats, and should be condemned,” said Becky Robinson, president of Alley Cat Allies.

“Rabies vaccination and prevention efforts in America are a true public health victory, and Trap-Neuter-Return only helps to boost these successes, because vaccination is part of the standard protocol of TNR,” she said. “To unscientifically point a finger at feral cats is a huge distortion of the truth.”

Robinson noted that cats are not considered a rabies threat by public health officials. The Centers for Disease Control rabies surveillance data reveals that there has not been a confirmed case of rabies transmission from cat to human in over 30 years, and vaccination and other public health efforts over the last half century have made any rabies cases in humans extremely rare.

Further, a number of scientific studies on feral cat colonies show these colonies overall to be healthy, and have found that TNR indeed stabilizes the population. Trap-Neuter-Return also makes the cats even healthier by eliminating the strains of mating and pregnancy, and ends behaviors associated with mating cats such as yowling and fighting. Robinson said cities that have embraced TNR have attested to its numerous benefits.

“The American Bird Conservancy is ignoring the true intent of International Rabies Day to push a cynical agenda that is not supported by scientific fact,” said Robinson. “But Americans do not support killing cats, and will not take the bait.”

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About Alley Cat AlliesAlley Cat Allies is the only national advocacy organization dedicated to the protection and humane treatment of cats. Founded in 1990, today Alley Cat Allies has more than 260,000 supporters and helps tens of thousands of individuals, communities, and organizations save and improve the lives of millions of cats and kittens nationwide. Their web site is www.alleycat.org.